What would Jesus vote for?

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One of the most shocking developments in recent American politics is the rise of a brand of Christian conservatism that embraces extreme free-market economic views. Politicians like Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and others claim to be inspired by Christian ideas while they advocate slashing food stamps for the poor, cutting Social Security, denying health care to those who can’t afford it and shutting down the government. As a Christian, I can’t imagine how anyone could so blatantly attempt to worship God and Mammon at the same time.

Now let me say that I am what is sometimes called a “theological conservative”, and although my own political views are socialist, I believe that Christianity is compatible with a wide range of different ideologies (after all, the Church existed long before any of our current political issues were even imagined). But there are limits. Christianity isn’t compatible with everything. In his last public sermon, Jesus talked about the Last Judgment and described eternal damnation as follows:

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ […] Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’” (Matthew 25: 41-43;45)

Notice that the souls condemned to Hell are not guilty of a sinful action, but of inaction. They are not going to Hell for something they did, rather for not doing something they should have done. This passage clearly expresses the contradiction between the Christian view of morality and the individualistic view promoted by conservatives and libertarians.

In the individualistic view, “negative rights” reign supreme: the most important right is the right to be left alone, people have no obligations to help each other and the government must not impose any such obligations upon them. Each individual is supposed to be left alone to do what he likes with his person and property as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others to do likewise. Giving anything to your fellow man or offering any kind of help is purely optional.

But Christ says no, you do not have a right to be left alone. No, you may not “live and let live.” You are required to help people; you are required to sacrifice your time, effort and wealth for others – even for strangers. The Christian view is that people have positive obligations toward each other and society. Laissez-faire is the philosophy of Hell.

The fact that Jesus explicitly threatens individualists with eternal damnation is particularly important, because this is an unusually harsh thing for him to say. In fact, the Gospels only mention two occasions when Jesus told stories about people being cast into Hell. The one quoted above is one of them. The other is the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), which describes the rich man going to Hell after death. That’s right, the only two times that Jesus gave clear examples of people going to Hell, was when he was talking about people who failed to help the needy. This is how serious he considered the issue to be.

It’s also relevant that the only time Jesus physically assaulted people (with a whip, no less) was when he saw the money changers in the Temple. And he didn’t just berate them for being in the Temple; he called them thieves, which implies that they would have been thieves if they did their money-changing outside the Temple, too. It’s hard to get more anti-capitalist than that.

Yet it is common to hear members of the Christian right dismiss our duty to help each other as if it is no big deal, as if it is merely something that people may do if they wish but have a right to refuse. But helping the poor, the sick and the needy is not optional. It is an absolute moral duty. It is the least optional part of the entire teachings of Christ. It is the only part that Jesus considered so important that he explicitly threatened people with Hell for not doing it. If there is anything at all that Christians are obligated to do on Earth, this is it. If there is any part of Christian morality that ought to become government policy, this is it.

Some Christian conservatives say that helping the needy should be left up to private charity rather than being done by the government through taxes. You know the line: “the government has no right to take my money and give it to someone else.” This is an example of the anti-Christian classical liberal ideology that has infected the Church in America. In the Christian view, that money is not yours but God’s, and you have no right to keep any more of it than you need for a decent life. St. Basil the Great, one of the early Fathers of the Church from the 4th century, explained the issue as follows:

“If it is true that you have kept the law of charity from your childhood, as you claim, and that you have done as much for others as for yourself, then where does all your wealth come from? Care for the poor absorbs all available resources … So whoever loves his neighbor as himself owns no more than his neighbor does. But you have a great fortune. How can this be, unless you have put your own interests above those of others?”

Another fourth century Christian theologian, St. John Chrysostom (the author of the standard Sunday service of the Orthodox Church, among other things), was even more explicit: “Do not say ‘I am using what belongs to me.’ You are using what belongs to others. All the wealth of the world belongs to you and to the others in common, as the sun, air, earth, and all the rest.”

The founders of free market ideology understood Christianity’s emphasis on helping others as well, and for that reason they were enemies of Christianity. The militant atheism of Ayn Rand is well documented: she went to great lengths to attack the Christian principle of self-sacrifice in her books praising capitalism, and her ideas inspired the “Church of Satan” of Anton LaVey (which doesn’t actually believe in Satan, but rather uses him as a symbol). Less well-known are the anti-Christian views of the founders of libertarian economic thought. Ludwig von Mises wrote in 1922:

“A living Christianity cannot, it seems, exist side by side with Capitalism. Just as in the case of Eastern religions, Christianity must either overcome Capitalism or go under. Yet, in the fight against Capitalism today, there is no more effective war-cry than Socialism…”

If only other libertarian economists could be so honest! Mises, the abject worshipper of the market that he was, naturally saw this as a reason to reject and oppose Christianity, because it stands in the way of the god of profit. But he was right about one thing: Christianity and capitalism are natural enemies. The fact is that conservative Christians in the U.S. have been deceived into serving political forces that represent the worst enemy of our faith. To be sure, mainstream American liberalism has major problems and carries some anti-Christian ideas as well – but none are as fundamentally opposed to the teachings of Christ as the right-wing idea that free markets are good and that wealth belongs to individuals and not to society. It is the right, not the left, which proudly advocates the one thing that Jesus himself described as the road to Hell. Conservative Christianity – so admirable in preserving proper theology – must stop working for the enemy in the realm of politics.

Ah, but you don’t understand the Christian Right approach to God in politics! It goes like this: “The rich have a God-given right to do the exact opposite of everything Jesus said, and no government should dare to question this right. On the other hand, the government should totally enforce some rules of private behavior that Jesus never talked about and that are only mentioned, like, five times in the entire Bible.”
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The core message is optional – the footnotes are mandatory!
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(hey, that would make a great bumper sticker)

Kris on
October 31st, 2013 11:15 am

“When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.” – Exodus 21:20-21

Sorry dude, the bible says I can own private property.

Genghis Khan on
October 31st, 2013 8:09 pm

It must be nice to be generous with what isn’t yours. Since you’re a socialist type, I think I’ll be generous with your bedroom. I know several homeless people that I’ll be bringing by to “share” your bed, your food, etc. You won’t mind, I’m sure, seeing how generous you are.

Alex on
October 31st, 2013 8:35 pm

Oh, not this again. Why do so many otherwise-intelligent opponents of Christianity think they’ve made some kind of huge discovery when they find some Old Testament rule that Christians don’t follow and that seems either ridiculous or cruel or otherwise wrong to modern eyes? You really think that Christian theologians never noticed that stuff is in there? The issue of whether Christians should follow Old Testament Law was already being discussed by the followers of Jesus just a few years after his death. Those debates are even recorded in the Book of Acts!

And they eventually concluded that Christians SHOULDN’T follow Old Testament Law, because “the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” (Galatians 3:24-25) And also, “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.” (Galatians 5:18)

Seriously, this is like Christianity 101. Christians do not follow Old Testament Law. Duh. I’m not a huge fan of Christianity, but I get really annoyed when people criticize a religion for something that religion does not actually believe.

Kris on
November 1st, 2013 9:26 am

Neat. You missed the joke. But Lenin here still believes someone rose from the dead.

Paul on
November 6th, 2013 4:16 pm

Alex, Jesus says “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the least stroke of a pen to fall out of the Law” (Luke 16:16) and that “anyone who breaks even the least commands [of the Old Testament] and teaches other so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:19).

Paul also says we don’t nullify the Law by faith, rather we establish it (Rom 3:31).

Those passages you cite are a challenge to a continuity position and there’s disagreement about what they mean (likewise those I cited), but I take Paul to be condemning either the Judaizers who taught the ceremonial law or those teaching the Law as a means of justification.

“owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.[b] 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.[c] 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?[d] 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’[e] 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Alex on
November 10th, 2013 1:25 am

Uh… “Freedom”… First of all, you dishonestly left out the beginning of that parable. It starts as follows:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, `You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, `Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ They said to him, `Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, `You go into the vineyard too.’ When evening came, owner of the vineyard said to his manager…” [the rest is what you quoted]

Get it? The owner of the vineyard is God, and the workers that he calls into the vineyard at different times are people who start following God at different times in their lives. The point of the parable is that even those called at the eleventh hour (i.e. even those who convert on their deathbed) will be rewarded in heaven in the same way as those who followed God all their lives. It’s a parable about salvation, not about socialism or free markets or anything like that.

But second of all, leaving aside the actual meaning, what we have here is a story about a guy who paid all his workers equally despite the fact that some of them complained and said they deserved more than others. It’s literally a story about equal pay. And you think it goes AGAINST socialism? Umm…

Alex on
November 10th, 2013 1:53 am

Paul, it is a fact that Christians do not follow Old Testament Law, especially the parts of it that prescribe various punishments for various crimes or regulate minor aspects of daily behavior. Christians have NEVER followed those rules. Neither the medieval Catholic Church, nor the Puritans, nor any fundamentalist Protestant states ever attempted to literally use Exodus or Deuteronomy as a criminal law code. It is generally understood that those parts of the Old Testament were instructions specifically for the people of Israel at a certain time in their history, not universal rules for all people at all times.

There is disagreement about whether some of the moral teachings of the Old Testament still apply to Christians, for the reasons you mentioned, but I wasn’t talking about those. I was talking about stuff like the verses quoted by Kris, or any of the other OT passages that regulate slavery or mandate light punishment for violent crimes or things like that. All Christians agree that those were rules for specific people at a specific time, not universal rules of behavior.

I was refuting the lazy atheist argument that goes along the lines of, “look, the Old Testament says you should stone adulterers, but you don’t agree with that, do you? So you see, Christianity is barbaric and even you have to agree that some parts of it must be given up in the modern world.” This argument is lazy and wrong because Christians NEVER believed that stoning adulterers or the various other legal rules in the OT apply to them.

Genghis Khan on
November 12th, 2013 6:38 pm

@Freedom:

Thanks!

Mikey thinks that money taken by threat of force is “charity”. By that definition – and please understand I’m not actually wishing this on anyone! – if someone held a knife to his throat and anally raped him, why, that’s voluntarily acceding to an amorous gay interlude.

Crh on
November 14th, 2013 12:22 am

The point is that there is no such thing as “others’ money”. In Christianity, all money is God’s money. If you think that your money belongs to you alone and you have a right to refuse to share it, fine, but don’t call yourself a Christian.
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It’s amazing how many tough-talking conservatives suddenly turn into crybabies yelling “but that’s not FAIR!” when someone points out that Jesus said they should give most of their money to the poor. News flash: No one said that being a Christian was supposed to be easy. In fact, Jesus said the precise opposite. Being a Christian is supposed to be hard. So if you want to be a Christian, stop whining and give most of your money to the poor.
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I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that “I’m sorry, Lord, but I didn’t help homeless people because they’re yucky and smelly and I don’t like them around my house” is not going to be an adequate defense at the Last Judgment.

Observer on
November 14th, 2013 8:46 am

Genghis Khan, maybe you are not aware of this, but there are in fact plenty of people willing to welcome complete strangers into their homes and sometimes share an unused bed or couch or some of their food. It’s a phenomenon called “couch surfing”, and it has grown exponentially in recent years as websites were set up allowing people to verify that their guests have a good track record and no criminal history.

You see, it turns out that people aren’t really opposed to sharing their homes with strangers, they are just opposed to sharing their homes with *potentially dangerous* strangers. If they have some way of knowing you’re not dangerous, many people you’ve never met would gladly let you stay in their house for a while.

So why do we still have homelessness? Because homeless people can’t afford to rent or buy those empty houses. Yay capitalism!

Freedom on
November 14th, 2013 9:11 am

Not ” Umm…”, but whatever you wrote doesn’t change the FACT that Christianity is AGAINST SOCIALISM. Thou shall no steal! Capisci?

So you get HELL not salvation by practicing oppressive and thievious socialism. That’s for one!

Second of all, leaving aside the actual meaning, it’s not some bullshit, oppresive “equal pay” socialism, only freedom and free market, where property is sacred: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?”

Sorry, but manipulations, lies and stealing won’t get you socialists and nobody far..

Freedom on
November 20th, 2013 5:35 pm

@Observer “why do we still have homelessness? Because homeless people can’t afford to rent or buy those empty houses. Yay capitalism!”

Yay, we live in social democracy! ups.. form of socialism, where every single part of life is taxed and centrally controlled/planned 🙁

Capitalism (freedom) which existed in 19c in America, made US rich and paradise for masses of the poor from around the globe!

Freedom on
November 20th, 2013 5:53 pm

@Crh Please don’t manipulate! You’re not a Christian, you propose to steal from the rich to give to the poor!

You properly noticed, only manipulated: ” If you think that your money belongs to you alone and you have a right to refuse to share it, fine, but don’t call yourself a Christian.”

I am FREE (not forced) to choose if I want to share with the poor or not.

If I do it by force like you, then I steal and I am not a Christian.

If I do it VOLUNTARILY, while fighting for freedom given by GOD (NOT VOTING for wealth distribution), then and only then I can call myself a Christian!

Freedom on
November 20th, 2013 7:36 pm

@Maria What are you referring to?

Observer on
November 20th, 2013 8:18 pm

Oh, well, I’m glad you at least admit that your ideal is a return to the pure capitalism of the 19th century… which included such shining examples of Freedom!!™ as, for example:

– Slavery. 1 in 7 Americans was a slave. Then after the Civil War they stopped being technically enslaved, but still had no rights.

– No rights for women either. They could not vote, sign contracts in their own name, or enter into any legal agreement without the approval of their husbands or fathers.

– Genocide against the Native Americans.

– Violent and murderous suppression of strikes and trade unions.

– And, uh, in case you’re wondering, there was lots of homelessness too.

Crh on
November 20th, 2013 9:22 pm

Hey, “Freedom”, guess what? You are NOT free to choose if you want to share with the poor or not. Jesus said you’ll GO TO HELL if you don’t share. How is that not “forced”? That’s more forced than anything the government could ever do! When the government forces you to do something, it means you’ll get fined – or, at most, go to jail – if you don’t do it. Jesus says you’ll go to HELL if you don’t do it. Compared to that, a hardcore communist state looks downright soft!
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Oh, and by the way, don’t try to weasel your way out by saying that “thou shalt not steal” somehow means the state doesn’t have the right to redistribute wealth. The Bible makes it very clear that it does, and you’d better pay your taxes:
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“They came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?’ But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, ‘Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.’ They brought one. And He said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ And they said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were amazed at Him.” (Mark 12:14-16)
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“Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” (Romans 13:7)
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So, yeah. Pay your taxes, give to the poor, and stop whining.

Freedom on
November 21st, 2013 6:47 am

@Observer Sorry you don’t understand. I’m here to explain. I want even better then that!

I don’t know why you spit those crazy stuff, but freedom means:
-no slavery
– no prohibition for women working any jobs
-no genocide
-of course suppression of those who try to oppress others, free country means no one oppresses no one
-in free, richer country people can afford more, so much less homelessness than in any social democratic or socialist system
-and most important of all, thanks to fastest progress, medicine will advance and help cure and save lives of millions who die nowadays

Thanks for helping clarify that Freedom is the way to go!

Freedom on
November 21st, 2013 6:54 am

@Crh-MANIPULATOR

God gave us free will to choose good or evil, with state you have no option, so stop your mischievious manipulations 😉

It does say to pay taxes for army, police, justice system, minimum administration, it doesn’t say to steal from one to give to another, you weasel, you 😉

So yes, free country with poll-tax and no forced redistribution is what Jesus advised !

STOP MANIPULATING!

Genghis Khan on
November 22nd, 2013 1:08 pm

@Observer: Couch sharing is voluntary. Telling me to just shut up and pay for charity through the government is like telling a woman with a knife at her throat that the “amorous interlude” she is about to participate in is voluntary.

@crh: Jesus never said anything about sharing beyond your capacity to give. Jesus never said anything about someone else determining what your share was.

Crh on
November 22nd, 2013 7:22 pm

Wait, so “help your neighbor or you will go to hell for eternity” means giving people free will to choose good or evil, but “help your neighbor or you will go to jail for a few years” means giving people no option? lolwut? You realize the government can’t actually mind-control you and make you do things, right? If something is illegal, that doesn’t mean you literally CANNOT do it. You are still able to do it, but you’ll get some penalty if you do. And when it comes to failing to share your wealth, even the penalty imposed by a hardcore communist government is still smaller than the penalty Jesus says you’ll get in the afterlife. So how the hell (pun intended) can you say Jesus gives you more freedom than the state? Jesus and a communist state say EXACTLY THE SAME THING: “those who do not share their wealth will be punished”.
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So let’s be clear about something: Jesus explicitly said you must share your wealth with the poor (Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22), He said you must help your neighbors by providing them food, clothing, housing and comfort when sick (Matthew 25:32-40), He said that you will go to hell if you don’t do these things (Matthew 25:41-46), and He further said that you should pay your taxes (Mark 12:14-16). And that’s not SOME taxes for SOME things; He said pay your taxes, period. There is no mention of “army, police, justice system, minimum administration”, or anything else. Just pay your taxes, whatever they are for. How you could possibly imagine that this is an endorsement of capitalism is beyond my comprehension. You, sir, are a hypocrite, a liar, and the very definition of a fake Christian.

Ben on
November 24th, 2013 4:22 pm

Mike, Jesus told us to be generous with our own property. That’s called charity and we should all do it. No one is stopping you either.

That’s the difference between socialism and Christianity. One involves giving, the other involves taking from others for the “greater good.”

Freedom on
November 25th, 2013 2:30 pm

” the hell (pun intended) can you say Jesus gives you more freedom than the state? Jesus and a communist state say EXACTLY THE SAME THING: “those who do not share their wealth will be punished”.”

Yet another weak manipulation. Jesus says, do good and you shall be rewarded. Do evil and you shall be punished. Hiring thugs (socialists) to steal from people, take most and share rest with others is nowhere near DOING GOOD (as you take more then give away).

And freedom doesn’t stop people from sharing, people will share and help others like they’ve done through centuries, so quit your mischievious bollocks!

As for taxes, now you’re even manipulating english words like poll-tax (head, equal tax for all) ?! And in 1 Sm 8 God explicitly warns Samuel against socialist and other mob rule. You’re not gonna deceive anyone towards evils of socialism..

Crh on
November 26th, 2013 3:17 pm

Ben, Jesus told us to be generous, period. He said to help the needy, period. Nowhere does he specify that it should be done only through private charity. That idea is a modern right-wing invention.
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Furthermore, Jesus also told us, in very clear terms, to pay our taxes. Now, if helping the poor is good and funding the government is good, then logically we should use the government to help the poor. When you combine two good things (helping the poor and paying your taxes), the result is also a good thing. Socialism is a combination of two things that Jesus told us to do.
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@Genghis Khan: I understand that you imagine taxation to be illegitimate (which is the reason for your ridiculous comparisons with rape), but the fact is, Jesus does not see it that way. The Bible does not see it that way. Christianity does not see it that way. Most secular philosophy and legal theory does not see it that way, either. Taxes are legitimate. Paying taxes is good. God says you have a DUTY to pay taxes. And yes, paying taxes necessarily involves “someone else determining your share”. I’ve never heard of any tax that works according to the principle “pay only as much as you like”.
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@”Freedom”: The New Testament was written in Greek, not English, and the original word used in Mark 12:14 is “kensos”, which refers to a type of property tax (it’s also the origin of the English word “census”, because the amount of tax to be paid was based on a census of how much property you owned). But this word (translated as “poll tax”) appears in the question of the Pharisees, not in the answer given by Jesus. The answer is that you should pay your taxes, in general, not only this tax in particular. And besides, Romans 13:7 clearly says that you should pay your taxes in general.
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Socialism is not “hiring thugs to steal from people… and share with others”. That would be a type of anarchy, if every person had the right to move wealth around as they please. Socialism is the LEGAL AUTHORITY – the government – taking from the rich to give to the poor. And the Bible says the government does have the right to take money from people (Mark 12:14-16, Romans 13:7). So, yeah, actually, it is GOOD for the government to take from the rich and give to the poor, because (a) the government is allowed to take from the rich, (b) the rich, like all people, have a duty to pay their taxes, and (c) it is good to help the poor.

Freedom on
November 29th, 2013 10:55 am

@Crh Thank for another proof, that socialists are nothing but thieves, liars and fraudsters, parasites on human society.

“Ben, Jesus told us to be generous, period.” No liar, he said much more. Especially I repeat for others, cause you seem to stupid to understand. “thous shall not steal” and it’s more important than being genereous. Bible even admits publicans are sinners!

Everyone knows governement steals and is corrupt to the bone. It’s perfect for all evil people who through lobbying can steal from others to suit their needs.

You simply advocate to steal and to sin. You manipulate words of the Bible that Jesus advised us to steal through taxation! Unbelievable! And you even negate what he eally advised: private charity, “go, sell and share” not “hold him, take his money and share”!

You’re not Christian, you’re a socialist, a common thief, disgrace to human race..

Freedom on
November 30th, 2013 8:44 am

@Crh Oh, not only you break 7th commandment ” Thou shalt not steal”, but also the 10th “You shall not covet … anything that is your neighbor’s. … You shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

You are pure sinner. Typical socialist.

Socialism is nothing but fraud and thievery, invention of low life elements of human society, pushed by those deceived and paid to do it with stolen money.

‘It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.’M.Twain